NKU CINSAM To Host Kentucky First LEGO League Championship Feb. 4

Feb. 1, 2023 - Northern Kentucky University's Center for Integrative Natural Science and Mathematics (CINSAM) announced the Kentucky FIRST® LEGO® LEAGUE (FLL) Championship will take place on Saturday, Feb. 4, 2023, from 8:30 a.m. through 5 p.m. 

With the help of volunteers from industry and other Kentucky FIRST robotics teams, CINSAM will host the state championship robotics tournament with 24 of Kentucky's best FLL Challenge teams in grades 4-8 competing for the top awards and advancement to international competitions. This event will also include 20 FLL Explore teams in grades 2-4 participating in the Explore Expo. 

For the past 10-to-20 weeks, FLL teams of students have engaged in research, problem-solving, coding and engineering. They have been building and programming a LEGO robot and presenting their research on a relevant real-world problem that ties into the yearly theme. For this year's ENERGIZESM theme, the FLL SUPERPOWEREDSM challenge will lead the teams in exploring energy sources and thinking of improvements in the way energy is stored, distributed and used in our communities.

CINSAM has hosted the Kentucky FIRST® LEGO® LEAGUE Championship since 2012 and once again welcomes the Kentucky FLL Challenge and Explore teams to the Northern Kentucky University campus for the first in-person Kentucky FIRST LEGO League Championship since 2019. CINSAM was awarded a NASA-Kentucky Space Grant and a sponsorship from Duke Energy to support the championship event. 

For anyone wishing to join CINSAM in celebrating all the teams' hard work, attendees are invited to watch the public portions of the event, which include:

• 9:30 a.m. - 10:30 a.m.: FLL Explore Expo Open House - posters and LEGO models of FLL Explore teams (Grades 2-4) will be on display in the Eva G. and Oakley Farris Commons and George & Ellen Rieveschl Digitorium inside Griffin Hall
• 11:25 a.m.: Opening Ceremony in Regents Hall - parade of teams and speakers
• Noon - 4:30 p.m.: Robot performance rounds in Regents Hall - FLL Challenge teams run their robot with their pre-loaded code to see how many points their robot can score in 2.5 minutes.
• 5 p.m.: Closing Ceremony in Regents Hall - awards and advancing teams are announced. These are anticipated times of the schedule. 

The actual times will run slightly ahead or behind schedule over the course of the day. There is no charge to spectate at any FIRST event. Parking in the Kenton Garage costs $5 per car. Food will be available for purchase on campus at Starbucks, Steak N' Shake, Norse Street Subs and Market in the Student Union.